Architect: Barozzi / Veiga, Barcelona
Local Architect: Studio A4, Sczeczin
Location: Szczecin
Client: City of Szczecin
Date: 2014
All photos: Jakub Certowicz
Based in Barcelona, Barozzi / Veiga was established in 2004 by Fabrizio Barozzi (*1976 in Rovereto, Italy) and Alberto Veiga (*1973 in Santiago de Compostela, Spain). Over the past 11 years the office has won several competitions and prizes, working on projects on all scales in Europe and abroad, creating an impressive portfolio with the Headquarters of the Ribera de Duero in Roa, the Concert Hall in Aguilas (both Spain, 2011), and the Filharmonia Sczeczin (one of five finalists for the 2015 Mies van der Rohe Award) among their internationally most well-known designs. Currently they are working on the extension of the Graubünden Museum of Fine Arts, a New Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne, the Tanzhaus in Zürich and a School of Music in Brunico (Italy), all of which they’ve won through competition.
www.barozziveiga.com
In Poland’s north-western corner where the River Oder flows into the Baltic Sea, the city of Szczecin is reinventing itself. According to the city development plan entitled “Floating Gardens 2050”, new districts are cropping up along the riverbanks and on the Oder islands. A crucial part of this plan involves new cultural institutions, the most iconic of which is the Filharmonia Szczecin – which has been realised in record time. Plans were initiated in 2005; an international architecture competition held in 2007; construction began in 2011; and the new building was opened on September 5, 2014, with a declaration by the Polish president that it served as “a symbol of our freedom”.
Designed by Barcelona-based architects Barozzi/Veiga and acoustics engineer Hirini Arau, the building is breathtaking – yet not in the bombastic-Bilbao sense of the word. While its form has popularly been compared to an iceberg, a cream pie or a building block in underwear, the architect states that the roofscape references both the cranes of the nearby shipyards and the pitched roofs of the historic houses and towers of Szczecin. Inside, beyond surprisingly generous foyers, which are lit brightly from above by large skylights, lie two concert halls, both with splendid acoustics according to the musicians who have played there so far. I (fh)
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